Just a note about Diner's Club: if you do use the DC card to rent a car, the coverage is teriffic. But beware: when you rent what they consider "exotic" cars, there is no coverage.

I called DC - apparently the BMWs (the 500 series) are not consideed exotic - so that should be OK.

DC is not as strict (or plain silly if you ask me) in their exclusions from rental car coverage. AMEX will not cover anything over about 40K sticker price (I forget what it's at now, it goes up periodically) along with any real sports car (Dodge Stealth and Nissan 300Z for instance are specifically excluded).

DC on the other hand only excludes really exotic and expensive cars. Most MB's and BMW's will be covered ...

Okay, I'm at home now and have the rental car coverage for my AMEX Platinum card (dated 4/99) and my DC card (dated 4/98).

DC excludes:

trucks; campers; trailers; RV's; off-road vehicles; motor bikes; motorcycles and motor scooters; antique cars, high value, special interest and exotic cars (including Aston Martin, Bentley, limos, Daimler, DeLorean, Excalibur, Ferrari, Jensen, Lamborghini, Lotus, Maserati, Porsche, Rolls Royce or similar vehicle); vans seating more than 15 passengers or cargo vans.

Also, SUV's are included in the coverage if they are not operated off road.

AMEX excludes:

cars with retail value more than $50,000 when new

exotic cars regardless of value including but not limited to Corvette, Supra, RX-7, Viper, Stealth, Prowler, 3000 GT, 300 ZX, Jaguar XJS, NSX, Mercedes SL, SLK, S Coupe, and E320 Coupe and Convertible, BMW M3, Z3 and 8 series, Allante, all Prosche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Aston Martin, Lotus, Bugatti, Verctor, Cobra, Bentley, Rolls Royce

trucks, pick-ups, cargo vans, custom vans

full-sized vans

vehicles which have been customized or modified with the exception of driver's assistance equipment for the physically challenged

antique cars

limos

full sized SUV's (Tahoe, Range Rover, etc.)

SUV's driven off road

off road vehicles, motorcycles, mopeds, RV's golf carts, trailers


SO ... in summary they look pretty similar ... AMEX is not quite as restrictive as I thought ... the biggest gap I see is the full-size SUV thing ...

Spartacus,

I beg to differ with you on "piddling around" with the 3-series. Different strokes for different folks and all that, but I could get either and went for the 3 because it's simply more fun to drive. Not more fun to ride in, especially if you're in the back seat, but a lot more agile. And, unless you go for the 540 which is even heavier and less agile (though it handles well for its weight), you have the same 193hp, 2.8-liter engine as a 328i in a heavier car. You can draw the obvious conclusion from that.

This is the last time I'll get so far off-topic in this thread. Promise. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

BMW's numbering system:

1st digit equals series ...

318 = 3 series
540 = 5 series
750 = 7 series

2nd and 3rd digit equals egine displacement in tenths of a liter ...

318 = 1.8 liter engine
540 = 4.0 liter engine
750 = 5.0 liter engine

HOWEVER, the engine displacement is sometimes rounded to the nearest whole or .5 liter, but there is no particular method to that now, some round, some don't (for instance, I think the 540 is actually a 4.4 liter engine, but rounded to 4.0 for the car name).

Therefore, the 328 and the 540 do not have the same engine ... the 328 and the 528 however do have the same engine.

That's what I thought I said - that UNLESS you go for the 540, that is IF you get the 528, THEN you have the same engine. Sorry if I didn't phrase it clearly.

And sometimes their designations are affected by marketing considerations. The current 323i has a 2.5-liter engine, not 2.3, but they wanted to create the appearance that it was further below the 328i than it is because they priced it much more aggressively. They did this partly to compete with the Audi A4, partly to fill the gap left when they stopped selling 4-cylinder sedans in the US.

Maybe we ought to start a BMW thread? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Gisela is actually owning/driving a 323i (with permanent 4-wheel-drive).

Note that the engine-nomenclatura above (beckles) is probably correctr for the USA - but differs from country to country in Europe (in Switzerland cars are taxed by cylinder-volume-ranges and it matters a lot (in SFr-taxes) if it is, as an example, 2999cm3 or 3000cm3!

On a similar vein Rudi, there are significant restrictions on selling cars with more than 255 Horsepower (or something like that, I forget the exact number) ... there are an awful lot of 255 HP engines in cars in Japan and for some reason the same engines have a lot more HP here in the states ...

BMW and MB are kind of wacky ... they have these systems that would make perfect sense if they used them consistently, then they make a mockery of them by applying them so haphazardly! MB has stopped doing this mostly I think, but BMW still does it quite a bit ...

"Gisela is actually owning/driving a 323i (with permanent 4-wheel-drive)."

The US version is/was the 325ix, not available now for nearly 10 years! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

BTW- Beckles is correct and the nomenclature generally works with 2.8 l engine being in a 328 and a European version 2.3 l in a 323.

My understanding is that driving style, taxes on vehicles with larger more powerful engines and perhaps most improtantly, the higher price of fuel in Europe is what lead to production of 'smaller' European versions! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

hoppla! Gisela's BMW is actually a 325i (not 323) - sorry.

Schutzee,
BMW ended production of 328i after May 2000. You'll have to settle for 330i next spring.